The 'zine should be moving forward in the next few days. It's pretty silly that it hasn't been. But I've been far behind on quite a few projects, and the 'zine has fallen to the wayside.<br><br>I would like it very much if the OLPCzine website, or whatever other news outlet is created covers Sugar in every context for OLPC and for any other platform. And I would be more than happy to help with that project as an ongoing set hours per week volunteer position. A CMS is a very powerful thing, and even better if it's surrounded by a wiki as well.<br>
<br>Seth<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 11:25 AM, Edward Cherlin <<a href="mailto:echerlin@gmail.com">echerlin@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 4:06 AM, Christoph Derndorfer<br>
<<a href="mailto:e0425826@student.tuwien.ac.at">e0425826@student.tuwien.ac.at</a>> wrote:<br>
> Greg DeKoenigsberg schrieb:<br>
> > On Tue, 6 May 2008, Bernie Innocenti wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> >>> People new to wikis often find them confusing and and frankly hard to<br>
> >>> navigate, definitely not intuitive. Let's not bend the people to fit the<br>
> >>> tool.<br>
> >>><br>
> >> In my mind, this is the result of missing full time maintainers<br>
> >> with a clear web design in mind. A CMS by itself would not solve<br>
> >> the issue; It could even make it worse.<br>
> >><br>
> ><br>
> > Ding ding ding. I see this conversation in Fedora-land all the time. The<br>
> > "real web site" people say "we need a real web site". The wiki people say<br>
> > "and just whom do you expect will maintain it?"<br>
<br>
</div>s/whom/who/ The structure is "who will maintain it?" Adding another<br>
clause doesn't change that.<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> >> For example, look at OLPC's institutional web site: the People page<br>
> >> lists people that walked away, people I have never seen and other<br>
> >> inaccuracies. Journalists look at this shiny thing for a moment,<br>
> >> then come back asking if perhaps we also have a web site with real<br>
> >> content :-)<br>
<br>
</div>I have made Wiki pages to offer corrected versions of some of the main<br>
site page content.<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> > Yep.<br>
> ><br>
> > Really, it all comes back to people to do the work -- and the more people<br>
> > you have, the more governance you need. And *not* so that you can "tell<br>
> > people what to do" -- the purpose for governance is to know what people<br>
> > are doing. To know *who* is responsible for *what*.<br>
<br>
</div>It is well known that the job of governance in Open Source development<br>
consists of herding cats, and not as well known as it should be that<br>
the way to herd cats is not to tell them what to do, but to convince<br>
them that that is what they wanted to do in the first place, and it<br>
has nothing to do with you. This is only possible if your goals and<br>
theirs actually are aligned, and it is only necessary to find the<br>
context in which this alignment is visible. Unless you can afford to<br>
put enough cat food at the spot where you want them to congregate.<br>
Context and cat food may in our case both consist of shiny new toys<br>
that they get to play with.<br>
<br>
Another principle of cat-herding is the Leader Principle: find out<br>
where people are headed and get out in front of them. Or figure out<br>
where they would head if they understood the issues, and stake out a<br>
position over there. Like RMS and Free Software. The naysayers still<br>
think he's nuts, of course, and us, too. Some cats herd more readily<br>
than others, so you start with who shows up.<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> > In the activity space, we see a lot of similar problems here that are<br>
> > similar to other open source projects. The need for testing. The need<br>
> > for localization. We must ask ourselves: why do people step up to these<br>
> > tasks in other organizations, but not in this one?<br>
<br>
</div>Somebody asked them?<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> > I would posit that it's because people who participate in other<br>
> > organizations are recognized in some way for their participation and<br>
> > leadership. For example: we started having community success in Fedora<br>
> > only when we started to give *real, core responsibilities* to people<br>
> > outside of the Red Hat side of the organization. Funny thing: when your<br>
> > name becomes very publicly associated with something, you will *bust your<br>
> > ass* not to see it fail. OLPC never turned this trick. Maybe Sugar can.<br>
<br>
</div>Nicholas Negroponte and the old-style managers at OLPC (Fadel and<br>
Kane) have almost never talked to the community at all, unlike Walter<br>
Bender and Kim Quirk.<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> I just had an idea which might be able to address some of the issues<br>
> (facilitating activity testing and development, tying in contributors,<br>
> making new activities more visible, more overall community engagement)<br>
> which we've been discussing here.<br>
><br>
> How 'bout setting up <a href="http://www.planet-sugar.com" target="_blank">www.planet-sugar.com</a> (working title) which could<br>
> basically be the one-stop-resource when it comes to activity<br>
> development, testing and related matters? Something along the lines of<br>
> Gamasutra.com or what PlanetHalfLife used to be back in the day. We<br>
> could include reviews of activities, have featured activities of the<br>
> week / month, competitions, how-to articles, interviews with different<br>
> community members, etc. Basically an xo-zine on steroids focused on<br>
> activity development...<br>
><br>
> What do you think?<br>
<br>
</div>Seth Woodworth tried to start one, <a href="http://olpczine.org/" target="_blank">http://olpczine.org/</a>, but AFAIK I'm<br>
the only one to contribute to it. Also AFAIK, nothing prevents us from<br>
jumping and and running with it. Take a look and tell us what you<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d">think.<br>
<br>
> Cheers,<br>
> Christoph<br>
><br>
> > Any possible Sugar foundation that depends upon volunteers should start to<br>
> > consider questions of governance sooner, rather than later. We need<br>
> > localization? Create the (unpaid, of course) "VP of localization for the<br>
> > Sugar foundation," who recruits a team of volunteers.<br>
<br>
</div>Me! Me! That's me! (Well, Sayamindu is in charge of Pootle. I don't<br>
know who got the previous several dozen projects started last year.)<br>
<br>
I have been recruiting localizers for Cambodia, Haiti, and Rwanda.<br>
G1G1 has more than 10,000 XOs on order for each of them, but nobody<br>
had thought to get the projects started. Haiti was straightforward to<br>
find people for, including one from Ubutu localization, Rwanda is easy<br>
because of the government's campaign to computerize the whole country<br>
and make Rwanda the high-tech hub of Africa, but in Cambodia it's like<br>
pulling teeth. Mentally, they seem not to have recovered from the<br>
Khmer Rouge sufficiently to be willing to express their own opinions<br>
in public, or to support others in doing so. The whole country is<br>
remarkably slow to adopt Wikis, open forums, and the like. Also,<br>
Javier Sola of the KhmerOS project is actively hostile to OLPC in<br>
general, and to me in particular.<br>
<br>
One person cannot recruit all of the localizers. I need to recruit<br>
recruiters. Anybody? Pass it through your networks. I have found<br>
several people to help through LinkedIn. BTW, you're all invited to<br>
connect with me there.<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
> > We need testing?<br>
> > Create the (unpaid, of course) "director of quality assurance for the<br>
> > Sugar foundation" who recruits a team of volunteers. We need a great<br>
> > website? Create the (unpaid, of course) "Czar of Content Management" who<br>
> > recruits a team of volunteers. Look at the number of VPs in the Apache<br>
> > organization; it's insane. But it's incredibly effective. Who wants to<br>
> > be the "VP of Failure"? No one. Which means that when you *do* find<br>
> > people who are legitimately willing to take leadership roles, they will<br>
> > work night and day to create success.<br>
<br>
</div>I don't know how big a factor the titles would be. Showing<br>
appreciation in a more practical way, say by listening to the<br>
volunteers, seems more important to me.<br>
<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br>
> > The future of Sugar will depend on volunteers, and on the ability of all<br>
> > of us to get the most out of those volunteers -- including enabling them<br>
> > to make Important Choices on behalf of the organization. Learn from<br>
> > OLPC's failures in this regard.<br>
> ><br>
> > --g<br>
<br>
</div></div><font color="#888888">--<br>
Edward Cherlin<br>
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business<br>
<a href="http://www.EarthTreasury.org/" target="_blank">http://www.EarthTreasury.org/</a><br>
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay<br>
</font></blockquote></div><br>